The Story of Thrug
by Zasa
Summary: Thrug, a confused halforc, does what he has to.


Hello everybody, I have decided to set up a system where I will only keep working on a piece if some folks want to continue reading it. If you want me to keep writing it, let me know any mistakes I made, and what you think of it.

For more of my work, check out "The Tale of Xaphan"

Chapter one

Thrug woke up this morning with a pounding headache, just like he had every morning for the past few weeks. He looked around his little hut, with its adobe walls and a tightly stretched krenshar skin roof, then he rolled out of his elk skin sleeping mat. He began to wonder why he was having this headache, he was sure he hadn't gone out drinking last night or the night before, so he was sure it wasn't a hangover that had overstayed its welcome. Thrug stumbled out of his hut, and slammed the flimsy door of wound together sticks while on his way out.  
Thrug headed towards the well, which was near the center of town. There weren't many other people out yet, as it had just dawned, and The Hunt wouldn't begin for several more hours. Thrug had drawn the bucket out of the well, and looked at his reflection in the water. His wild black hair wasn't cut too short, and it sort of stood up an inch or so before it draped down to a little below his somewhat lupine ears. His red eyes shone back at him as he inspected his tusks, they were a little smaller than his fellows, and he was harshly ridiculed for it when he was younger. He chugged down all of the water from the bucket and thought "Oh, well I'm the strong one now." as he wiped some of the water off of his greenish-gray skin.  
Thrug decided to get ready for the hunt early, and headed towards the Village House. It was there that the most of the weapons and armor of the tribe was laid out to be shared with anyone that needed them. He had yet to buy his own, and it would be at least until spring until trading would open up with the nearby settlement of humans. He wasn't able to get any earlier, because his drunk of a father refused to let him buy weapons. He had built his home near the beginning of this summer, and proven himself as an adult. He could buy what he wanted now, he was a fairly successful hunter and had earned a small degree of respect within the tribe.  
Thrug had finished arming himself, and had chosen a rather stiff set of leather bracers, leggings, and a chest piece, along with a simple spear. Thrug and a few of the other villagers had definitely heard the sound of a pride of krenshars howling in the forest. It meant that they were near, and hunting the big cats, aside from providing a valuable trading commodity of a waterproof skin, also had a way of separating the boys from the men. If he was able to find the pack today, he would definitely be able to gain respect from the entire village, and have enough money from the skins to buy whatever he needed when spring came again. Thrug then went off to grab some breakfast and wonder what he should buy when he got his money.  
Everyone was assembled for the hunting party, other than Thrug, it consisted of Jook, Kax, Raff, and Lem. Kax was just as strong as Thrug, if a little slow, mentally and physically, and Thrug liked him, he was a pretty nice guy, and had never made fun of him while he was younger. Lem was the son of the village leader, and usually spent a lot of time with Raff, Lem wasn't particularly strong, smart, or polite, but Thrug still had to begrudgingly give him the respect required to an heir. It was Jooks first time in The Hunt, and he was much younger than the others. With little ceremony, they set out into the forest silently.  
They had finally found the trail of at least one of the beasts, and began to follow it as quietly as they could. Eventually, the trail came to a dead end at the base of a tree. It was then that Lem whispered "It climbed up the tree, what are we going to do to get it now"  
"Its not up da tree, krenshars don' climb good." said Thrug.  
"Trust me, I chased after one of the human's cats once, it climbed up a tree really fast, a krenshar is a big cat, so it would climb too"  
"Dey don'-" Thrug started, but then he remember he had to pay Lem more respect, and it would be easier for somebody to just look and know that Lem was wrong. "Raff, go under dat tree with your spear ready, and da rest of us will have our weapons ready if it tries to pounce on you"  
Raff looked fairly nervous, and you could hear his shaking from a mile away. He slowly moved up towards the tree, and looked up through its branches, he carefully moved around under the tree, examining every last branch. He then shouted "It's kay'! Nottin in da tr-" Raffs words were cut short by a rather angry looking two-hundred pound cat. But it didn't really look much like a cat, more like the features of a wolf and a hyena in the same animal. Surprising everyone but Thrug, the krenshar did not leap from out of the tree, but out of the bushes just a dozen feet or so away. Raff didn't look dead, but it was clear that he wasn't fighting back. Lem threw his spear, but it missed, flying way off target, and then he drew his sword as he tried to close in on the big cat. Thrug didn't have the luxury of an extra weapon and simply charged at it, managing to get in a good blow, the spear cut through part of its shoulder, and it looked a little weaker. The krenshar then seemed to change, and the skin on its face began to peel back, revealing the raw flesh and bone underneath as it let loose a bloodcurdling screech. Jook and Lem took off as fast as they could, running off into the forest. Kax then lumbered forward and began to swing at the cat with an impressively large axe. The krenshar jumped back, and Thrug pierced the cat with his spear, it had entered just below the shoulder and exited towards the bottom of the chest. It collapsed into a heap, and began breathing heavily, then it suddenly stopped. Thrug went over to check on Raff, who was unconscious but doing fine.  
Thrug carried the krenshar back to the village, and Kax carried Raff. They weren't able to find Jook or Lem, and assumed they went back. Thrug just started walking out of the woods when he heard a scream, it was coming from the center of the village.  
Thrug dropped the krenshar's carcass and took off towards the village's center, nobody he knew screamed without a very good reason. As he drew closer, he realized something, one of the huts was moving. It looked like it had a dirty green roof, and he began to wonder what kind of animal the skin came from. He kept running, and picked up speed, whatever was happening definitely wasn't natural.  
He had finally gotten close enough to the center of the village that he could see what was happening, what was moving around wasn't a hut, it was something…else. It was like a mix between a bear, a toad, and a human, but not resembling any of them individually. It had a vaguely humanoid face, with a short, sloping forehead, beady little eyes, an extremely elongated nose, and vicious, wide mouth. The things body was short and squat, with a potbelly, and more greenish-grayish skin. The beasts arms were huge and wiry, ending in wide hands with huge claws. Its legs were short and stubby, and its feet were mostly humanoid, missing the giant claws the hands held. Thrug was sure he had seen an image of this creature before, maybe it was in the temple. A name went along with it that the priest had said… trowl? Towl? Trell? Yes, trowl that was it.  
The trowl took one of its great hands and reached out to snatch a fleeing little girl, Manja was her name, Thrug had seen her before in the village, she was always such a good little girl,never picked on anybody, wouldn't hurt a fly. The trowl raised Manja up to his mouth, and swiftly tore off the screaming girls upper body. It then threw the rest of her body away, her poor remains flying thirty of forty feet away. A villager charged, it was Grak, he had offered to help out when Thrug was building his home. Grak slashed cleanly through the belly of the trowl, but as soon as his axe left its flesh, the wound healed. It batted its huge hands at Grak and sent him flying straight into one of the huts. The wood cracked as his body collided with it, and he fell down in a slump. The village leader, Chief Uktab, charged at the trowl, wielding his huge sword, and with one blow almost cleaved the beast in two, it fell backwards having only a small part of its spine left to support it, but seconds later, its upper body twisted freakishly and it fell back onto its lower body, as if nothing had happened to it. Both claws fell into the Uktabs center, and the trowl tore him apart.  
It took a few moments for Thrug to snap out of the terror that had begun to grip him, then he charged wildly at the trowl, and sent his spear into its gut. The trowl removed the spear, with Thrug still gripping on to it, and threw both items. Thrug hit a hut, and the wood cracked and splintered as he hit it, then he fell to the ground. His head felt wet. He could still open his eyes, but it hurt. He fought the pain, and looked out, the vision in his right eye had gone all red and blurry, but he could still see what was happening. The trowl was still plowing through the village, and eating. More people he know were dieing. More friends, more neighbors, more of his fellows were dieing. He could feel his body growing cold, he knew, he knew he was going to die too. They were all going to die. Thrugs headache had flared up, he had already forgotten about it since this morning. The pain was unbearable, but he didn't care, all he wanted was to stop the trowl. To stop the people he cared for from dieing. He just wanted it to stop. Something in him snapped, and the headache seemed to go away. Thrug blacked out.

Chapter two

"So, do you think he's the guy"  
"No, it can't be him, I mean come on, look at him, he's an ork"  
"Well, yeah I guess your right, but still, what do you think he's doing here all alone, sleeping, in the middle of the site"  
"How the hell should I know? Hmm, do you think its an ambush"  
"Nah, I think his buddies would have probably popped out by now, anyway"  
"So, should we try to head back and get another reading to figure out where he is at now"  
"Don't you think it would be easier to just try asking this guy if he knows anything"  
"What's the point? We wouldn't be able to get anything out of someone as stupid as an ork, he would probably just start screaming at us or something"  
"Awww, come on, what's the worst that could happen, besides, I don't want to walk all the way back without anything to give to Warlow, he'll get all mad and scary"  
"Fine, but your going to be the one to wake him up"  
"Awww, come on, your not going to help me at all"  
"Get to it, just keep poking him or something."


End file.
